Trump Hotel in Panama at Center of Power Struggle

The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Panama is at the center of a major ownership dispute that has turned ugly.

The struggle between the owners of the property and the Trump organization continue to escalate as the owners association plans to remove the Trump name from the hotel, blaming the Trump brand for declining guest numbers and revenue. On Wednesday, armed Panamanian authorities with guns and helmets entered the property and remained for several hours, while the country’s labor minister told reporters that some workers said they hadn’t gotten paid.

The dispute between Miami-based investor Orestes Fintiklis, who owns a majority of the units in the property, and the Trump organization began late last year as Fintiklis moved to cut ties with the Trump brand.

The property has “steadily been losing market share and stands in last place among its peer luxury hotels in all the relevant metrics for success in the hotel industry,” according to legal papers filed in a lawsuit by Fintiklis.

Fintiklis acquired 202 of the 369 units, along with the hotel’s amenities, in 2017. Should he be successful in shedding the Trump brand, his will be the third hotel to drop the Trump name since the presidential election. The other two properties are in New York City and Toronto.

The big news in the hotel world was the 2017 opening of the Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski in Havana, the city’s first proper grande dame of a hotel to open in the island nation. Located in the historic Manzana de Gómez building, Cuba’s first shopping mall in the center of Old Havana, the hotel is truly in a class of its own.
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